Law enforcement, students participate in safety drills

Members of the Ionia County Sheriff's Office, Ionia Department of Public Safety, the Belding Police Department, Portland Police Department and Michigan State Police gathered at Saranac Junior and Senior High School Thursday and Friday to participate in Active Violence Incident training.

Members of the Ionia County Sheriff's Office, Ionia Department of Public Safety, the Belding Police Department, Portland Police Department and Michigan State Police gathered at Saranac Junior and Senior High School Thursday and Friday to participate in Active Violence Incident training. This training, which occurs annually, involved Heartlands Institute of Technology Criminal Justice students in John Nelson's class. Before students arrived and simulations began, the officers received training regarding a variety of issues regarding safety. According to Jack Pieters of the Ionia County Sheriff's Office, these trainings are an important way to improve response if a situation were to arise. “The patrol officers work together in tactical response. Since we live in a rural area, we need to be able to come together to create a strong response, and practice, in case something were to happen,” Pieters said. To make the training more realistic, students were invited to participate, along with Saranac Junior and Senior High School Co-Principal Josh Leader and Saranac Community Schools Superintendent Maury Geiger. “We shoot at each other to up the real world feel. This helps us prepare, and also shows us where training needs to be improved. Overall, these trainings benefit everybody,” said Pieters. For Leader, the Active Violence Incident Training provided him with the opportunity to learn more about how the school and law enforcement will cooperate if an incident were to arise. “This training is worthwhile to me as a building administrator because I know what to expect if God forbid a situation like this happened. I'm learning what information I need to provide, and things like maps and layout of the school that I need to gather, in case something were to happen,” said Leader. During training on Thursday, Leader had the opportunity to play a “bad guy” during one of the scenarios. “I got shot yesterday when I was playing a 'bad guy,'” Leader. For Geiger, the opportunity to work on planning and implementation in the event of a crisis is an important component of these exercises. “The idea here is that we all have crisis plans in place. This helps us review our crisis plan. We can give them (law enforcement officials) maps of the building and layout, but it's different when they're actually here,” said Geiger. Criminal justice students, such as Mason Eldridge and Jennifer Hamel, participated in the drills Thursday and Friday. “The whole thing is really fun. It's pretty neat to see everyone in action,” said Eldridge. For some students in the class, such as Hannah Charles of Saranac, the drills were an eye-opening experience. “Now I realize how important preparedness is if a school shooting were to happen,” Charles said. The goal for Friday was to run through as many scenarios as possible; allowing each team of law enforcement officials the opportunity to work through different events that may arise. “This year, we're trying to run a smaller team because that's more realistic for our area. The first responders may only be a few people, and they're going to be the ones headed in to the school first, so that's one way to make it more realistic for us,” Pieters said. For the volunteer victims, law enforcement officials and school administrators, these drills provide practical training and information that could be crucial in handling school safety concerns if a threat were to occur. Follow Mattie Cook on Twitter @ISSMattie.